The problem is, as I believe it, koko that a charge of missleading

the House, has to be made in the Lower House & if made, would

just be defeated on Party lines. I don't know how he can be stopped,

before the Election & I am not sure that enough voters realise what

is going on, to get rid of him.

Kerry O'Brien asked a significant question of Wayne Swan last night.

Where is the $38Billion worth of 'national emergency' if the tax is not to be implemented till 2012/2013?

This point has been overlooked in the media generally.

Full kudos to K. O'Brien.

*************************************************

More than A$20 billion was paid in corporate taxes and royalties alone in the past 10 years. Rio Tinto's effective tax rate averaged more than 35 per cent. About three quarters of these taxes and royalties have been paid in the past five years, underlining our growing tax contribution.



Rio Tinto Chief financial officer Guy Elliott said the data, verified by independent external auditors PricewaterhouseCoopers, would help end much of the uncertainty created by contradictory information that had emerged since the Government's proposed mining super tax was announced on 2 May 2010.













This media release by Rio Tinto is quite illuminating, and surprise, surprise, seems once again to put the lie to Rudd's and Swan's figures.

"These figures confirm previous statements made by Rio Tinto about the level of tax paid in Australia. Misleading information propagated by other parties has not facilitated a proper dialogue about the importance of the minerals sector to all Australians. That's why we thought it was important to get the facts out there," Mr Elliott said.



"The details we are releasing today leave no room for doubt about Rio Tinto's substantial contribution to Australia and the Australian economy," he said.



"Put simply, these figures demonstrate that Rio Tinto, one of Australia's biggest taxpayers, pays its fair share of taxes. It should also be emphasised that the data shows Rio Tinto has effectively invested all of its Australian profits, and

[url=http://http://www.riotinto.com/media/18435_media_releases_19279.asp]Source[/url]



Oh yes, and to Maxine Mc Who as well.

Another unexpected result of the Mining Super Tax. Whyalla in South

Australia, has a population of approx., 22,000 of which a major

proportion work for One Steel. If the Super Tax goes ahead, One

Steel will close its operations & Whyalla will effectively become a

ghost town. The very safe Labor State Seat is held by Lynn Breuer

who will disappear into oblivian. Not that Rann will be too worried,

He has bigger problems, because it now looks like the new Olympic

Dam project is likely to be abandonded.

For those that think that Australia is too good a proposition, in spite of the

Mining Super Tax.



Newcrest Mining’s proposed merger with Lihir Gold is moving along nicely

towards a successful conclusion. Similarly, BHP Billiton’s announcement

of a resource at its $US10 billion-plus Jansen potash project in Canada

and a 2015 start for saleable production suggests that project is also on track.

The common theme to Newcrest’s acquisition of Lihir and the Jansen

project is that both Lihir’s major resource and the Jansen resource are

unaffected by the Rudd government’s proposedresource super profits tax.



It is interesting to note that the, now fast tracked, BHP Jansen Project, which

involves a $10Billion investment, will attract a tax rate, in Canada, of less than

half the proposed Australian rate.

Innes and others, you may be interested to read this.



A veteran of half a century in the Australian sharemarket, Teele said he had never seen overseas investors turn against Australia so quickly.





The government is already under real pressure to significantly amend or abandon the tax. [b]The difficulty it has is that it has already spent the $12 billion it expects to raise from the tax [/b]in its first two years. It can’t meaningfully reform the tax – and in particular it can’t excise the retrospectivity which is its most objectionable feature and the element that has driven the perceptions of heightened sovereign risk – without putting a $12 billion hole in its budget.





[url=http://www.businessspectator.com.au/bs.nsf/Article/Crackdown-on-the-dancefloor-pd20100521-5N75K?opendocument&src;=rss]Link[/url]





Also last night, Twiggy Forrest, on Lateline, just said straight out "they don't know what they're talking about". He's referring to the Govt.

Forrest is more pro Labor than Liberal, by the way.